dog song
Double-bell trumpet, electronics [15′].
dog song is a commission from virtuoso trumpeter Marco Blaauw, for a piece for double-bell trumpet and electronics.
The piece was recorded at ZKM, Karlsruhe, and released on Unsounds 21U Antichamber and on the Marko Blaauw CD 'Blue Dog' released on Wergo
Marco Blaauw’s double bell trumpet somehow always provokes an image in my mind of a two-headed dog; so there was no doubt in my mind I would write a ‘dog’ piece when he commissioned me. The piece was finally written in the Summer of 2006, after spending some time playing together in the improvised group Co-Inc. The form of the piece developed into a series of short scenes for double bell trumpet and electronics, where the electronics defines the space and world where the dog song unfolds, the inner unheard world that underpins the creature’s schizoid growls, spits and barks. Then the dog gained a mythological dimension, he began to resemble Cerberus, the multi-headed hound who guards the gates of Hades. Perhaps in an alternate Orpheus myth, instead of Cerberus being mesmerized and put to sleep by the strains of Orpheus’s harp; Orpheus already in the trance that has brought him to the underworld, encounters this dog-demon and hears music in its wild growl. The dog’s heads surround Orpheus, singing its dog song, and lulling the hero into a sweet surround-sound sleep.
